Andrew Dickens reviews Neil Finn's new album 'Out Of Silence'

It would be easy to deal with this record in relative terms.  To judge it by it’s process.  Recorded over 4 Fridays with the bulk of it done in 4 hours on the final Friday.  But to do that would be improper.
It’s a return to the old days of recording.  The beatles first record please please me saw 14 songs recorded in one day.  So the famously fastidious Neil has done this one even quicker
But a record is a record and has to be judged on what comes out of the speakers.  And what came out my speakers this morning was sad, sumptuous and elegiac
It’s a sad album full on loneliness, indeed the song co performed with Tim is called Alone.  And yet Neil is not alone.  This is the biggest band he’s ever had.  String section.  Cor Anglais with people like Don McGlashan, Tiny Ruins and dozens other
The other glaring fact is that there is very little guitar or drums in the album.  Composed on the piano...there are only 2 songs with drum on them.  Chameleon Days and Second nature.
It has the feeling of a musical.  A Les Mis.  Especially on the song Terrorise Me which is about the bataclan atrocity which has a Parisian sadness to it.  An Erik Satie to it or a Serge Gainsburgh
But on a song like Widow’s Peak which has echoes of Four Seasons in One day you know this could only be Neil
But not as we know him.  This is a side project but the best he’s done.  A symphonic Finns Brother.  The Pyjama club on a sad day when they’ve left their instruments at home.
You have to be in the mood for it though.  The sadness and the piano and strings can become oppressive and there’s always a feeling of relief when the drums return in track 7 of 10 with Second nature the most typically Neil song on the album.
But this morning with a cup of coffee and some sourdough toast with the rain hammering down it sounded amazing
The sound of a late autumn or early spring chilly morning.
It’s a real work of art and I’m hugely impressed 9 out of 10.